22 May Five More Ways to Make Yourself Smile
Here’s something worth knowing: smiling is genuinely good for you. Not just in a feel-good way, but physically. It can lower your heart rate, ease pain, and shift how your brain processes everything around you.
We already put together a list of ways to give yourself a reason to smile, including watching something funny, calling someone you love, playing with your pets, getting out in nature, and treating yourself to a little pampering. All great options. But we figured, why stop there? Here are five more ideas for ways to make yourself smile.
Why Smiling Is Good for Your Health
Before we jump in, a quick note on why smiling is good for your health. There’s solid research behind this claim. For instance, a study on smiling and its effects on the brain found that a genuine smile actually broadens your thinking and builds emotional resilience over time. It’s not just a mood boost at the moment. Smiling shapes how your brain handles stress and sees possibilities. That’s a pretty good reason to find more things worth smiling about.
Five More Ways to Make Yourself Smile
1. Cook or Bake Something from Scratch
There’s something quietly satisfying about making food with your hands. It doesn’t have to be complicated. A batch of cookies, a pot of soup, some homemade guacamole. The focus it takes to follow a recipe pulls your mind away from whatever was stressing you out, and finishing something you made yourself from nothing gives you a genuine hit of pride. Cooking for yourself also gives you a chance to be intentional about what goes into your body.
2. Play Music That Reminds You of Good Times
This one works almost every time. Pull up a playlist from a happy time in your life and just let it play. Music is tied to memory in a way nothing else really matches, and those songs carry the feelings attached to them. Something about hearing a song you haven’t heard in a while can take you right back, and usually in a good way. It’s a fast, zero-effort mood shift.
3. Do Something Creative with Your Hands
Baking is one version of this, but the broader idea is worth mentioning on its own. Building something, gardening, drawing, painting, knitting, and woodworking. There’s a reason so many people describe hobbies like these as meditative. When you’re focused on making something tangible, your brain gets a genuine break from whatever loop it’s stuck in.
4. Help Someone Out
Volunteering, doing a favor for a neighbor, picking up the tab for someone, or just genuinely listening when a friend needs to talk. All of these trigger what’s often called a “helper’s high,” a real neurological reward that comes from doing something for someone else. Helping someone else out is one of those rare things that benefits everybody involved.
5. Revisit Something You Loved as a Kid
Think about what you were obsessed with at nine or ten years old. Riding bikes, crafting, building LEGOs, playing sports or playing video games. Adult life has a way of burying those things under responsibilities, but reconnecting with them, even briefly, taps into a kind of joy that doesn’t have much competition. Never underestimate the power of doing something just because it’s fun.
Holistic Dental Care in Prescott, Arizona
When you’re happy, it shows up in your smile. Holistic dentistry means we’re looking at a bigger picture that includes your whole health, including your mental health. And if part of what holds you back from smiling freely is how your teeth look, we can help with that, too.
Reach out to make an appointment, and we’ll make sure you leave with a bright, beautiful, smile and healthy teeth!
Photo by Soundtrap on Unsplash with permission under the Creative Commons license for commercial use 4/11/26.